The History of the United States Part 6 (1918-1945) The First Era

The History of the United States Part 6 (1918-1945) The First Era

Extraordinary events took place from 1918 - 1945. America massively evolved from a more isolationist nation to the largest interventionist, industrial country in the globe. The WWI aftermath (filled with economic dislocation, the failure of the League of Nations, and the growth of fascist/authoritarian regimes) ironically caused World War II. During the 1920's, America saw a financial boom while farmers suffered economic distress and black people experienced racism, discrimination, and brutal lynching. Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans faced racism and other forms of oppression too. Xenophobia was rampant with bigoted immigration quota rules. There was also the growth of jazz, pop music, movies, early swing, and Prohibition (which saw more gangs, speakeasies, and the underground selling of alcohol). When the stock market crashed by excessive reliance on credit, financial speculation, and other reckless financial policies from the oligrachs, the Great Depression commenced. Unemployment grew, people lost their life savings, and the Dust Bowl was in existence. Subsequently, President Hoover's policies were too little and too late to end the massively destructive economic conditions. Therefore, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President in 1933 in response to Hoover's failures. FDR spoke of change, solutions, and he gave inspiration to the American people via his fireside chats. FDR used the First and Second New Deals as a way for him to try to end the Great Depression. The New Deal experiment expanded the federal government massively. It decreased the poverty rate in America along with the reality that poverty declined as a product of the military/industrial mobilization for World War Two.

American involvement in WWII experienced many steps. It included first non-intervention, then the Lend-Lease Program (or lending money by America to the Allies in opposition to the Nazis), and finally overt U.S. involvement in WWII after the destructive Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Americans in World War II acted as heroes to save lives, to defeat the Axis forces, and to rescue the victims of the evil Holocaust. At the same time in the American home-front, there were labor strikes, racial riots, and other events transpired from 1941-1945. African Americans, Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans sacrificed their time and their lives to serve in the U.S. military. The end of World War II caused America to be the most powerful superpower on Earth. The irony is that the end of WWII caused the once allies of the United States of America and the Soviet Union to be enemies during the Cold War. Black people, women, other people of color, and other human beings saw more opportunities and the similar problem of oppression in their legitimate quest for true justice. This era of United States history caused some of the most important developments in human history. Nothing would be same again by 1945.

The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties included both cultural greatness and fights against racism. It included both economic growth and massive economic inequality. It was a time unparalleled in American history and one of the most interesting periods in world history. From jazz to cars, creativity persisted during the 1920’s. From 1919 to 1929, America experienced massive changes. The economy boomed. More revolutionary means of production allowed American consumers to buy more items quicker. Stock prices grew. Factories produced more goods and wages increased. With this reality, more Americans brought for items. The car maker Henry Ford revolutionized mass production. Mass production was about the mass production of large numbers of identical products in order to create things more efficiently. Back in the beginning of the 20th century, mostly the rich could afford cars. The automobile was seen as a tool of the privileged. When cars came into rural areas, they were filled with dust and scared animals like goats and cows. By 1901, an inexpensive car was created by Ransom Olds called the Oldsmobile.

By 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. This was another inexpensive car. It sold for $850. He made a new plant in the Detroit River to have the car created from steel, glass, oil, and rubber. These items were manufactured in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Ford used assembly lines. They were similar to meatpacking plants using tools to move meat around in preparing for foods. The Assembly line had a worker add an item to the machine and then another worker would do a different job until the car was completely created. This process decreased the time to form a Model T from more than 12 hours to just 90 minutes. So, the cost of the Model T declined from $350 to $290 by 1927. From 10 percent of Americans owning the Model T to 56% of Americans owning it in 1927, it was the first car that ordinary Americans could buy. Gas stations developed in America. Cars influenced the developments of the highway system. Route 66 ran from Illinois to California. Advertising developed greatly and more Americans traveled in vacations. Wages for car makers also increased. Henry Ford increased wages because he knew if people had fair wages and were given more leisure time, then more consumers would buy his products and his car development plans would massively improve.

The automobile industry transformed America. Steel, glass, rubber, asphalt, wood, gasoline, insurance, and road-construction industries were helped by the car industry. Oil discoveries in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma gave workers new economic resources in the Southwest. 1926 was when the federal government invested in more highways. In these places, service stations, diners, and motor hotels or motels increased. Railroads and trolleys declined in their usage because of the rise of the usage of cars. More Americans saw freedom and prosperity with automobiles. Families traveled to the country. More people went into the suburbs from the cities with cars. More people from the suburbs also came to work into large cities. Economically, the 1920’s saw a consumer boom. More people brought items with credit from washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and irons. Electricity governed the power of machines. Installment buying or paying a down payment on something and pay the rest later was commonplace. Rising stock prices developed in the bull market. Some bought on margin as in credit. More people flocked to the cities from the rural areas including African Americans via the Great Migration.

Cities like New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Detroit exponentially expanded their populations from 1910 to 1930. The Empire State Building was finished in 1931. Suburbs grew too as cars allowed people to travel into a diversity of places. There were economic problems too like lower farm incomes, income inequality, more wealth sent to the super wealthy, and overt suffering in rural communities. Many people ignored the rural struggles of the 1920’s back then. Warren G. Harding was the Republican President who wanted to promote a laissez faire approach to government. He wanted normalcy. He and the other President Calvin Coolidge promoted a conservative government in the United States of America.  Harding wanted this far right agenda and that is why he choose Andrew Mellon as the Secretary of Treasury. Mellon was a total robber baron and big business advocate. Mellon wanted to promote business interests and he desired low taxes on individuals and corporations. Congress reduced spending form $18 billion to $3 billion. Then, the Treasury saw a surplus. Harding signed a bill that increased the protective tariff by 25 percent. He wanted to promote American business interests. European markets retaliated by increasing their tariffs causing a trade war. The trade war harmed the U.S. economy. Harding trusted the Ohio gang and others to handle many political including economic issues. The Teapot Dome scandal harmed the Harding Presidency. By August 2, 1923, Harding died of a heart attack in Alaska.

Traditionalism vs. Modernism

Calvin Coolidge was President as he was once the Vice President. He supported business interests. He promoted Mellon’s ideas of lowering taxes, cutting the budgets, and giving incentives to businesses. Urban Americans and the wealthy saw great profits. Yet, the rural communities suffered. Labor unions wanted higher wages, racial discrimination was huge, and Mexican Americans wanted equality. Coolidge did nothing since he believed that it was not the federal government’s responsibility to end economic and racial injustice. That was disgraceful on his part, because the federal government has every right to combat racial discrimination and economic injustice. Coolidge wanted a foreign policy to prevent wars. The U.S. wanted France and Great Britain to pay its loans to America because of WWI. So, the U.S. supported the Dawes Plan which forced Germany to pay reparations to France plus Great Britain. That money would be later sent to America. The crash of 1929 prevented that money to come into America. Ultimately, it would be the economic instability from the 1920’s that contributed to the Great Depression and World War II.

The 1920’s saw a new social reality in America. There was a clash between traditionalists who were conservative religious people. The modernists made up of secularists including many progressive religious leaders. This was like the culture war of the 1920’s.  Religion was powerful back then with preachers like the famous Billy Sunday. He preached against greed, card playing, dancing, and drinking especially. Farmers were suffering and the rural-urban division expanded. There were debates on immigration and the teaching of evolution debate. By the 1920 yearly census, more people lived in urban areas than rural areas for the first time in American history. Urban Americans had a consumer culture in full view. Many of them were open to social change and new discoveries of science. Many rural Americans had a traditional view of religion, science, and culture. Education was very important in America in promoting math, science, literacy, etc. High school graduates grew by 1930. By the 1920’s, some Americans thought that their Christian faith was under siege. So, they promoted religious fundamentalism. This view held that the Bible must be literally interpreted completely. Many of supporters of this view condemned the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Russia by Soviet communists and the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico being assaulted by some revolutionary people. The Scopes Trial of 1925 fined a man who taught evolution in a public school, but later laws would legalize the teaching of evolution in public schools since evolution relates to the study of science. Evolution was modernized by Charles Darwin with his book called, “The Origin of the Species.” The ACLU supported the biology teacher John Scopes who was teaching evolution in the high school. Clarence Darrow was the defense attorney who defended Scopes. William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor and didn’t support Scopes. Scopes was found guilty and was fined $100. Many people back then falsely viewed that evolution taught that humans just descended from modern day monkeys, but evolution taught that humans and primates share a common ancestor. The xenophobia of the 1920’s was huge.

New immigrants had jobs. Some nativists believed that these new immigrants took away American jobs and would harm American religious, cultural, and political traditions. The Nativists opposed new immigrants and many of them or the anti-immigrant nativists had ties to eugenicists. Congress forced new immigrants to pass a literacy test to be new citizens. Wilson vetoed the bill and Congress overridden the veto. Many xenophobes feared new socialists and communists coming into Americans. People, who opposed nativism, said that America was made up of immigrants and this is what made an American an American. It is true that America is filled with immigrants and our cultural diversity as Americans is part of our inherit strength. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924 promoted a quota system involving immigration. This restricted how many immigrants could come into America from specific nations. The National Origins Act said that the number of immigrants of a specific nationality each year couldn’t exceed 2 percent of the number of people of that nationality living in America in 1890. It banned Asian immigrants from coming into America too. The quotas didn’t apply to Mexico, so Mexican immigrants came into America in great numbers. Many Mexican Americans worked in crops found in California, Texas, New Mexico, etc. A smaller number worked in factories of the North and Midwest.

The second major rise of the Klan

Immigration hatred influenced the revitalized Ku Klux Klan by the 1920’s. The Klan promoted the doctrines of hate and bigotry plus racism. They committed violence all over America back then. The first Klan brutalized black people during the Reconstruction era. They wanted to prevent black people from voting. The new Klan of the 1920’s promoted hatred against African Americans and they were involved in lynching black people. They also added their hatred of new immigrants including Jewish people, Catholics, and others. There were labor protests and the Klan hated labor unions in general. At its peak, it had 4-5 million white racists in America. They were police officers, judges, and other people in society. Most of them were in the South and the Midwest. In fact, some parts of the Midwest were more racist than the South. Other Klan branches were in the North and the West too. David Stephenson was a Klan leader who controlled politicians too. Some Klan members opposed women from voting. Women groups of Klan members existed. Klan members terrorized black people, Roman Catholics, and Jewish people via boycotts and terrorism. They opposed businesses owned by black people, Jewish people, and Roman Catholics. They burned crosses in front of homes. The Klan used violence, bribery, rape, and political corruption. They also were exposed heavily by the late 1920’s. The NAACP and the ADL worked hard to oppose the evil actions of the Ku Klux Klan.

Prohibition


During the 1920’s, Prohibition existed. This was when the U.S. government made an Amendment to ban the sale and usage of alcohol. It sounds wild today, but back then, this was a reality. It has been influenced by the Temperance movement when drinking alcohol alone should never be a jailable offense.  By 1917, 75 percent of Americans lived in countries that banned liquor. World War I increased the prohibition or temperance movement. Many soldiers needed bread overseas, so corn, wheat, and barley was used to make bread by many instead of making alcohol. 1919 was when the Amendment to ban the distribution and sale of alcohol. Congress enforced the amendment with the Volstead Act. Proponents of prohibition believed that this policy would strengthen families, improve societies, and help people. Drinking and alcoholism plus liver disease declined during Prohibition. The problem was that prohibition grew an underground market of alcohol that was dominated by criminal gangs and the banning of the sale of alcohol is a violation of individual civil liberty. I don’t drink alcohol, but I won’t deprive an adult his or her right to drink alcohol if he or she desires to drink alcohol. Opponents of Prohibition said that this ban only represented hypocrisy and increased the power of organized crime, which did happen.

Political corruption happened too. Many bribes came to alcohol sellers as a means for them to look the other way while Prohibition existed. Many Americans violated the Volstead by creating bootlegging systems. Many speakeasies used secret passwords that allowed people to drink underground. Many government agents tried to stop this. In many cities, politicians and some cops looked the other way while alcohol consumption went on. Al Capone defended his acts of selling alcohol during the age of Prohibition. Al Capone has been glamorized by some, but he is a stone cold. evil criminal. He and his gang were involved in prostitution, drugs running, robbery, and murder. Mafias of Italian, Irish, Jewish descent including gangs of other ethnic groups dominated the underground economics of major American cities. The nation was divided on the issue and the Prohibition Amendment was finally eliminated by 1933 via the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Culture of the 1920's

Culture exploded during the 1920’s as well. New music and new forms of culture flourished into new heights. Many Americans listened to the radio. Some people went into the movies, and others were fans of movie stars and sports heroes. The 1920’s was probably the first decade of the modern pop cultural era. New technology united many Americans. More people have increased leisure time. Many people in farms played games, read, and sing together in the piano. During the times of the city back then, people saw higher wages and more salaries. Many people saw new entertainment in the movies. Hollywood was monopolistic in that select corporations dominated the production, distribution, and exhibition of movies. Every week, 60 to 100 million Americans saw movies every week. Silent pictures were commonplace first as many new immigrants in the States didn’t speak English. Charlie Chaplin was popular including the actor Rudolph Valentino including William S. Hart. There were Mary Pickford, Lon Chaney, and other actors plus actresses too. Bessie Smith was a legendary jazz singer and performer. The radio was invented by Guglilmo Marconi in the 1890’s. The radio spread news, wealth, religious sermons, and other matters. Many people could listen to boxing matches and other sports too. Music was shown in the radio too. Sports athletes like Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe, John L. Sullivan, Jack Johnson, Red Grange, Bobby Jones, and others. Other athletes like Helen Willis and Gertrude Ederle were famous including Bill Tiden. This era saw a Golden Age of Sports. Charles Lindbergh also crossed the Atlantic with his plane. I don’t agree with Lindbergh’s politics either. Many women had new opportunities during this decade. Equality was not there for women during that time. Women still fought for their freedom too. The first women state judge was Florence Allen in 1920.

The first woman governor was in 1924 who was Nellie Taylor Ross. Many women were flapper or wear fashion in promoting their own freedom. Many women fought for jobs in management, sales, banking, etc. Women also joined charitable groups and social clubs in order to improve communities. Modernism relates to uncertainty and many people expressed modernism like Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud. Paintings and literature expressed this modernist feeling especially after the destructive WWI. Modern art used unique styles too. Writers reflected the opposition to the Victorian era and wanted to advance the reality of wealth in the midst of confusion of where to go like Willia Cather, William Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, and Edith Wharton. Gertrude Stein was an author who wanted other writers to promote their own styles and find new ways of expressing their truths during the Lost Generation.

African American American Culture (including the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz)

African Americans had a flourishing of culture too during the 1920’s. African American magazines and books have outlined the black American experience comprehensively. Millions of African Americans came into the North and Midwest during the first Great Migration. This caused a migration of music and literature too. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s was a revolutionary display of black human experience plus expression. There was a new black consciousness that existed. African Americans worked in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, New York City, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Many were ministers, physicians, teachers, journalists, etc. in the North and the South too. Not to mention that black Americans established excellence in the West Coast too in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, etc. By the 1920’s, about 200,000 black people came into Harlem. They wanted to fight for solutions in causing freedom for black people. Harlem and the rest of New York City saw not only black Southern people, but black Caribbean immigrants from Jamaica too. This mixture of cultures caused a powerful energy to develop in Harlem and other places. One African American leader of the time period was Marcus Garvey. He came into Harlem in 1916. Garvey was born in Jamaica. His UNIA organization reached its zenith by the 1920’s. He wanted to promote black liberation via self-acceptance, self-determination, and the development of institutions.  His Back to Africa movement advanced a Black Nationalist ideological agenda. He advocated separatism unlike Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. Washington was similar to Garvey in believing in many conservative tenets. The Universal Negro Improvement Association reached as high as 2.5 million members.  The Garvey movement had newspapers, rallies, businesses, and a large infrastructure. It ended by government moves against Marcus Garvey under the guise of the accusations of mail fraud. Later, Marcus Garvey was forced into exile from America. After Garvey left, the UNIA declined in influence and power. The views of Marcus Garvey, especially its true tenets of loving Blackness, loving Africa, promoting black consciousness, and strengthening self-determination influenced the Nation of Islam, the Black Power movement, Malcolm X, and other black leaders. The Amsterdam from Harlem said that Marcus Garvey praised blackness.

The 1920’s saw the explosion of jazz. Jazz was an indigenous American musical art form. It was invented by African Americans. Jazz focused on improvisation and creativity. It came about in the music forms of the African American blues and ragtime. Jazz is therefore uniquely American. Jazz artists merge blues and ragtime in their music regularly. New Orleans is the Mother of Jazz. From New Orleans, it spread into the South, Memphis, then Chicago, and to the rest of America. Storyville, New Orleans was a place where jazz was popular too. Louis Armstrong grew jazz as a trumpeter. Armstrong spread jazz internationally and helped to make jazz an international musical form. Bessie Smith was the Queen of jazz. Her life story was filled with honesty, power, and creative energy. The Cotton Club in Harlem played jazz music. Jazz was the music of the Prohibition era as well. Duke Ellington incorporated jazz in his orchestra. Jazz helped to bridge the cultural gap in American society. Both black and white people used jazz in their everyday lives. Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin made jazz as part of their orchestral work. Jazz readily has shown the pain of African Americans as a lot of jazz songs were not filled with sunshine all of the time. Literature, art, and culture in general were part of the historic Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance promoted the New Negro concept.

This concept of the New Negro was about a new generation of black American poets, novelists, artists, and scholars would show their own experiences in non-stereotypical terms that focused on the black experience in a honest way. These writers want to show the pain of racism plus discrimination plus the joy and love of their own blackness in society. Jean Toomer’s Cane from 1923 showed the African American life in great ways. Jamaican immigrant Claude McKay called for justice for black people in the Harlem Renaissance. His poem of “IF We Must Die” showed the militancy to defend black life against anti-black riots occurring in places like Chicago. McKay and Langston Hughes were part of the political left of the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes wrote stories for decades about black human existence. Hughes wanted to show the strength of black American life. Also, Zora Neale Huston was a great writer of the Harlem Renaissance who merged folk culture with black life in her stories. She wrote the story of “Mules and Men.” Her book from 1937 called, “Their Eyes were Watching God” outlined the call for independence among women. The Harlem Renaissance grew the power of American culture. It outlined the greatness of black culture. Also, the jazz and blues genres were dominated by African Americans too. It promoted black solidarity. James Weldon Johnson of the NAACP as the secretary and he was a poet too. He praised the Harlem Renaissance and that movement would be one foundation of the Civil Rights Movement which would flourish by the 1950’s including the 1960’s.

The Great Depression


The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Great Depression. When the stock market crashed on October of 1929, economic changes existed. Production declined and massive unemployment increased. There were many causes of the Great Depression like agricultural problems, income inequality, easy credit expansion without legitimate regulation, and other issues.  During the 1920’s, Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge were in office as Presidents. The gross national product went up. The bullish economy continued. Hebert Hoover was elected President by 1928. He spoke of optimism. Hoover was from Iowa. He was an orphan as a child. Hoover worked in Presidencies and believed that the government, owners, and workers can have common goals. He worked in public service and other jobs. He believed in decentralized self-government. Americans voted mostly for Hoover. Alfred E. Smith or the Democratic candidate from New York lost the election. Hoover took office in March of 1929. America had confidence. Many economic troubles concerned many Americans too. The prosperity of the 1920’s wasn’t as strong as many people assumed. Many farmers suffered during the 1920’s. One quarter of all farmers made up the American workforce. More crops had to be produced with more expensive farm equipment. This increased debt. Farms grew bigger. The debts that the farmers had were owed to banks. This caused a rural depression in America. Many farmers were forced to sell their markets. Natural disasters ruined many farms too. Some relied on credit to survive.

This crisis extended to non-farmers too later on. Many industrial workers in the 1920’s had more wages and workers increased productivity. Worker output increased from 1923 and 1929, but wages grew less than workers’ output. Corporate profits increased massively too. Income inequality grew as the 1 percent of the wealthiest Americans owned the same amount of wealth as the poorest 42 percent of Americans. The nation’s wealth was uneven and caused economic problems. More than 60 percent of every American family had yearly incomes of less than $2,000 per year. 24,000 families owned more than $100,000 yearly income. The wealthiest people didn’t buy enough consumer products to get the economy growing. A great economy always needs a wide spectrum of people to buy goods and services. Under consumption harms economic growth. Income inequality creates economic uncertainty. Farmers overproduced while poorer Americans under consumed. The 1920’s saw easy credit. Many Americans paid for many items from cars, radios, etc. on credit. The problem was that so many people used credit, that they had high debt and had trouble to pay off that debt on credit. Many people lived beyond their means which contributed to the Great Recession. The stock market crashed on 1929. Many investors gambled, used speculation, and took too much risk. By September 3, 1929, the stock market fell.

By the end of October 1929, the stock market fell even further. 21 points were down on October 23. October 24 was known as Black Thursday. Nervous investors sold their stocks. Shares plunged. October 29 was Black Tuesday. The stock market collapsed. Billions of dollars were gone. Fortunes ended in hours. President Hoover said that the country was doing well economically, but that wasn’t the case. By November 13, 1929, the Dow Jones average dropped from 381 to 198.7. The Great Crash explained the growth and contraction of the business cycle. The Great Depression started and it lasted from 1929 to 1941. The banks suffered a great deal too. Banks failed by 641 in 1929. In 1930, 1,350 banks failed. Many people got their money out of banks. The Federal Reserve made the mistake of limiting money supply in fear of over speculation in 1929. This caused a low money supply. That wasn’t enough to handle the Great depression. Investors retrieved money left and banks closed. Reduced consumer spending and lower stock prices caused many businesses to close. Companies ended and plants closed. Henry Ford closed many of his Detroit automobile factories. Almost 75,000 people were out of work.

Production cuts increased. Unemployment grew and incomes lowered. Businesses cut production even more. By 1933, nearly 25 percent of all American workers had lost their jobs. The government promoted the Hawley-Smoot Tariff in trying to promote American products. It wanted to stop the depression. The tariff backfired as European companies used tariffs of their own. American manufacturers had unsold products. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff increased the burden of U.S. manufacturers to sell exports, so the economy further declined. Europe has a depression because of reparation payments, war debts, and trade imbalances. Germany’s economy collapsed. France and Britain didn’t receive American war debt payments. When loans from America to Europe declined, the recession hit Europe too. The Great Depression was globe. The Great Depression was caused by low money supply, income inequality, lax consumer spending, unemployment problems, and productivity issues. John Maynard Keynes wanted more government spending to fight the depression while Ludwig von Mises wanted laissez faire policies. Keynes has been proven right that in emergencies; the government does have a role to increase spending to help the economy.

Hard Times

The Great Depression harmed American in many ways. Extreme poverty existed in both cities and rural locations. Americans still showed courage to deal with the situation of lax economic resources. Whole families were without work. By 1933, unemployment was 24.9 percent. Workers, who had jobs, had their wages massively cut. Some were laid off and many had their working hours cut. People lacked many foods like vegetables and meat in their homes. People relied on water. Soup kitchens rose up to provide people with food. A bread line gave starving people food. Some were homeless and experienced hunger. Some lost their dreams. Some sold furniture to find places to live. Some lived in lodgings. Others lived in the streets. Hoovervilles were makeshift tents and shacks that housed people on public land or vacant lots. Homeless people were there. Some were in Central Park in New York City. Many Americans were inspired to help their neighbors. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia read comic strips to children over the radio. Farmers still had massive debt and struggled to stay afloat economically. Crops soon failed and the Great Plains had a drought. Prices of crops like cotton fell. That means that farmers had lower returns. Some people strike. Many farmers lost their farms in almost one million farmers from 1930 to 1934.

Tenant farmers worked for landowners. Cesar Chavez knew of his father during the depression. Some families moved. The Dust Bowl was about drought in the Great Plains. Water was small. Some families left the Great Plains for Missouri, California, Texas, and other states. The drought was worsening by plows. The topsoil was blown away. Winds were dangerous. Dust storms were high as 8,000 feet. It was some of the hardest hit of the Depression. Okies were the migrants form the Great Plains. Some traveled into other states. Many cities gained populations. Dams and other governmental policies helped to solve the Dust Bowl crisis. The Great Depression emotionally harmed men, women, and children. Many men and women lost their jobs. Some people with jobs feared of losing them. Black Americans suffered depression like situations for centuries, so they weren’t surprised by the Great Depression. African Americans lost sharecropping jobs during the time too. Unemployment of the black community by 1932 was 50 percent. Also, black people fought against these conditions by using resources of family, spirituality, and institutions to keep on going. Okies competed with Mexican Americans for jobs. Mexican Americans suffered discrimination. Thousands of Mexicans were repatriated to Mexico (via coercion by the federal, state, and local governments) for the sake of promoting white farmlands. Yet, many Mexican Americans stayed in the Southwest to do farming, industry, and ranching. Many black Americans traveled into the north to seek jobs during the 1930’s too.

President Herbert Hoover


Many people promoted rugged individualism during the Great Recession because many had no choice, but to survive in the midst of harsh economic conditions. Herbert Hoover was President during these times. Cities and towns suffered a great deal. Shantytowns had homeless people. Dust storms harmed the Great Plains. Hoover didn’t start the Great Recession. He did have the responsibility to do something about it as he was President during the peak of it. Hoover knew of economics and he hired experts to try to gather solutions in ending the problem of the recession. He tried different methods and they failed. His failure to solve the problem contributed to his defeat during the 1932 Presidential election. At first, Hoover wanted a hands off policy. He viewed recessions as part of natural occurrences of the business cycle, but people suffering deserve government intervention, especially during times of a massive recession. Hoover once didn’t want the government to be involved. That policy did nothing since by definition; it was no adequate policy at all (of non-intervention). He was Secretary of Commerce years ago. Later, he used another strategy. He wanted to voluntarily encourage businesses and labor to promote economic growth. He also wanted the government to have lower taxes, lower interest rates, and form public works programs. He wanted more money in businesses and individuals and these entities would stimulate economic growth.


This is similar to the Reaganomics of the future. Hoover wanted this goal to end the recession. Hoover wanted the super wealthy to give more money to the poor via charities. He believed that money, food, and clothing would go into these religious and private charities. These charities would, in turn, give money to those suffering. Hoover’s plan wanted volunteerism and voluntary cooperation. It didn’t work out. The reason was that businesses would cut wages, and most Americans followed individual actions not cooperative actions. Workers were laid off for capitalistic reasons. Hoover wanted Americans to work in the interest of the country as a whole without federal legislation. Hoover also believed that state and local governments should provide more relief measures and jobs. He believed in localism. Localism means that problems are best solved by the state and local governmental entities. The problem is that states and cities lacked the economic resources to end the Depression. Hoover even resisted using federal resources to help victims of the Great Depression too. Hoover rejected public assistance and believed in rugged individualism. Charities had little money, unemployment increased, and local plus state government struggled to get the resources to help Americans. This crisis was so big, that the federal government had to take a role in solving it. There were Hoovervilles everywhere. Homelessness was widespread. President Hoover’s policies failed. People started to associate Hoover with the problem from calling trucks Hoover wagons and calling cardboard boxes Hoover houses.

Then, Hoover decided to use federal resources to attack the Depression. Hoover thought that a lack of credit contributed to the recession, so he wanted Congress to create the RFC. RFC stood for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. It was passed on 1932. The RFC gave more than a billion dollars of government loans to large businesses and railroads. It wanted to lend money to banks and these loans would help businesses struggling. He or Hoover believed that money sent to the bankers would be lent to businesses. He viewed this plan as businesses would later hire workers, and production plus consumption would develop. This was part of trickledown economics or the money from the wealthy would go down to the poor. The FRC was part of the federal government, but it didn’t work under Hoover’s actions. The RFC lent out billions, but the bankers didn’t readily increase their loans to businesses. Many businesses didn’t use the loans to hire more workers. The money didn’t go down to the poor in massive levels at all. Hoover did caused a successful public works program of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Congress approved this plan in 1929. It was finished by the early 1930’s and gave employment to many people. Hoover wanted to end the Great Depression, but the problem was that his neoliberal policies didn’t work. People were angry and started to protest against him.

Some Americans rejected capitalism and believed that capitalism promoted economic inequality and injustice. Some believed in socialism and communism. Others rejected these goals. By this time, fascism grew in Italy and Germany with racists like Hitler and Mussolini. Still, most Americans never lost faith in democracy and most Americans wanted substantial change. In 1932, many people came to Washington, D.C. to call for that change. These were World War I veterans and they wanted the bonuses that Congress promised them. These human beings were involved in the Bonus Army. Congress promised a Bonus via the 1924 Adjusted Compensation Act. This law provided payments to the veterans in 1945. Many veterans by 1931 wanted an early payment since the Depression came about. Many veterans were out of work and needed money to survive. The House of Representatives agreed and passed a bill to promote early payments of the bonuses. Yet, the Senate rejected this, so the bill of an early payment was ultimately rejected. Veterans groups came into D.C. to protest this situation. 20,000 veterans came into the capital by the summer of 1932.

Many of them occupied government buildings and set up camps. By July, some of the police wanted to evict them and riots happened. President Hoover sympathized with the marchers. Yet, he wanted General Douglas MacArthur and federal troops to clear them out. MacArthur used tear gas and bayonets to force the veterans out of the Washington, D.C. area. The Army force that removed the WWI veterans included future World War II leaders like Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton. Eisenhower later regretted this action as very excessive. Patton wanted his troops to show their sabers. More than 1,000 veterans were tear gassed and many were injured. This response was totally inappropriate and wrong period. MacArthur accused the protesters of trying to promote a direct control of government, but these World War I veterans just wanted just compensation for their service and sacrifice to American society. Hoover didn’t personally order such force in using bayonets and tear gas. Yet, the images of American troops using bayonets on veterans shocked Americans. Images have power and many people blamed Hoover totally for it. Unemployment was almost 25 percent. People were hungry and homeless. Hoover failed to end the Great Depression, so Americans voted for a new President in 1932 to try to get change. The next President would be one of the most transformative President in American history both domestically and foreign policy wise.

The New Deal

One of the most important Presidencies in history was the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He won the 1932 election and promised a “New Deal for the American people.” His administration and his monumental domestic achievements represented the New Deal. The American people heavily blamed the Republicans for the Great Depression, especially for a lack of response to it. Roosevelt entered office with no single ideology or plan in dealing with the depression. The New Deal was heavily experimental, pragmatic, and unique. Roosevelt in his own words wanted to save capitalism. Competing ideas and programs were part of the New Deal era. The New Deal was a large project in an effort to end the Great Depression and reform the American economy. Some of his plans failed, but much of his plans' successes were part of some of the most important events of the modern American history. The New Deal outlined a vision of advancing a democratic society overcoming the challenge of a severe economic downturn. People were desperate for economic solutions. There were many Democratic victories in the 1932 Congressional elections. Frank Delano Roosevelt wanted an increased federal government role in in promoting and recovery and relief for Americans. Also, FDR put together a historic, strong cabinet in order for him to enact the policies that he desired. He nominated two Republicans who were Henry Wallace and Harold Ickes as his Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Interior respectively. He nominated the first woman Cabinet members in U.S. history, who was Frances Perkins in his Secretary of Labor. She was as social worker too.

Eleanor Roosevelt helped FDR as his wife and she was a progressive woman. She talked and sang with veterans during the 1933 second Bonus Army march. This caused Roosevelt huge influence in Congress with his “First Hundred Days” plan of his administration. He wanted to use his power to win rapid passage of a series of measures to create welfare programs and regulate the banking system, stock market, industry, and agriculture. The first hundred days provided instant action during his first 100 days in office.

Roosevelt proposed legislation and Congress passed 14 bills. These bills were part of the First New Deal. It wanted relief, recovery, and reform. By late 1932, banks failed in large numbers. As the banking panic was in America, many people wanted to withdraw their savings. One day after his inauguration, Roosevelt called Congress into a special session. He convinced them to pass laws to build up the nation’s banking system. The Emergency Banking law gave the President broad power to have a four day bank holiday. Banks nationwide were about to close. These closings gave banks time to get their accounts better before reopening for business. Eight days after being President, FDR gave his fireside chats to inspire confidence in the American people. He wanted people to keep their money in the banks in a reassuring role. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the FDIC was passed that insured bank deposits up to $5,000. Next year was the passage of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the SEC to regulate the stock market and make it safe for investments. The economy had more confidence. These financial reforms gave many Americans confidence. The stock markets stabilized as regulated trading practices have investors more confidence. Farmers were helped when their crops' yields exceeded demand. The Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act of the AAA to end the overpopulation of crops and raise crop prices.

They gave financial aid to farmers including subsidies to not plant part of their land. Farm prices rose in 1934. Conditions improved for the great majority of commercial farmers by 1936. The income of the farm sector almost doubled from $4.5 billion in 1932 to $8.9 billion in 1941 just before the war. Meanwhile, food prices rose 22% in nine years from an index of 31.5 in 1932, to 38.4 in 1941. Rural Southerners experienced the TVA or the Tennessee Valley Authority to give electricity, running water, and proper sewage system in the Tennessee River Valley. Many forests were replanted, and jobs grew. The TVA helped many people to survive. The Civilian Conservation Corps or the CCC gave jobs to young people. Many of them replanted forests, built trails, fought fires, and dug irrigation. The CWA or the Civil Works Administration worked on public works projects. The HOLC or the Home Owners Loan Corporation loaned money at low interest rates to business owners who couldn’t meet mortgage payments. The FHA or the Federal Housing Administration insured banks loans used for building and repairing homes. The NRA or the National Recovery Administration handled codes for minimum wages and dealing with fair completion. The PWA or the Public Works Administration built bridges, dams, power plants, and government buildings. The PWA work on building projects to this very day. Conservatives like Herbert Hoover said that the New Deal included too much involvement by the federal government.

The liberals viewed FDR as not going far enough to end the depression like Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party. Norman said that the New Deal was only about giving profits for big business. Frances Townsend wanted to help older Americans by giving $200 a month to all Americans over the age of 60. Charles Coughlin was an anti-Semitic bigot and he was so anti-Semitic that the Catholic Church had no choice but try to end his radio broadcasts. Huey Long was considered a populist and talked about high taxes on the wealthy and large corporations. He wanted redistribution of the super wealthy income to poor Americans. He was from Louisiana and he was assassinated by a political enemy in 1935.

The Second New Deal

The Second New Deal was the next phase of the New Deal movement. It desired even more change in American society. It dealt with Social Security and other programs to help the lives of millions of Americans.  FDR made his fireside chats to stir up Americans. The economic situation legitimately merited the federal government to promote the general welfare and intervene to save the lives of millions of Americans and to protect the rights of human beings. In essence, the Second New Deal addressed the needs of the unemployed, the poor, the elderly, etc. It had policies that helped farmers and workers in general. Public works projects were developed. By the spring of 1935, Congress appropriated $5 billion for new jobs and formed the Works Progress Administration or WPA to executive the program. Harry Hopkins was in charge of the WPA. The WPA created national highways, improved rivers and harbors, and promoted soil plus water conservation. The arts and artists were helped by WPA programs. Hopkins said that artists, “have to eat just like other people.” 8 million people were employed by the WPA in 1943. $11 billion were spent in that same year. The WPA workers built more than 650,000 miles of highways and 125,000 public buildings. The San Antonio River Walks and parts of the Appalachian Trail were funded by the WPA. Some of these programs increase the federal deficit to $4.4 billion.

British Economist John Maynard Keynes approved of this reality because he said that deficit spending was necessary to end the depression. Keynes believed that people working in public projects would put money in the consumers’ hands, which buy more goods and stimulate the economy. Pump priming is the definition of this theory of Keynes.  Back then, America didn’t have a universal pension system for the elderly. Other industrialized nations had them. This was about to change. Back then, many elderly people lost their homes, and lifesaving while living in poverty since they didn’t have enough money to survive. That is why President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had created his plans for Social Security on January 17, 1935. Congress passed the Social Security Act which was a pension system for retirees. It also gave unemployment insurance for workers who lost their jobs. It was insurance for the poor, children, the blind, and the disabled. One problem was that it originally didn’t apply to farmworkers and domestics. African Americans were heavily in those fields, so they weren’t eligible in many cases for these benefits of Social Security. Widows had smaller benefits than widowers since many believed that elderly women could manage on less money than elderly men. These weaknesses were changed later on to make Social Security to be one of the most powerful, successful aspects of New Deal programs.

The Second New Deal also helped farmers. When the Great Depression started, only 10 percent of all farms had electricity. The reason was that utility companies didn’t find it profitable to run electric lines to communities with small populations. Congress formed the REA or the Rural Electrification Administration. The REA loaned money to help electric companies to build up electrical services in isolated rural communities. The REA was so successful that by 1950, 80 percent of all American farmers had electricity. More federal government involvement in farms existed. Price supports, subsidies for agriculture are common among American farmers. Today, there are debates on small farmers vs. big farmers benefiting from governmental policies. Typically, large farms not small benefited mostly from federal farm programs. Also, tenant farmers and sharecroppers had African Americans who didn’t have the full share in the federal programs. Farm prices stabilized and we have to deal with agricultural areas fairly in order to have a protective economy for all people. The New Deal worked in water projects like the Bonneville Dam in the Pacific Northwest and the Central Valley irrigation system.

Labor unions fought for workers’ rights during the New Deal era. Many workers had little pay and lacked benefits. Mining and automobile industries started to increase labor membership. FDR wanted a higher standard of living among industrial workers. The National Labor Relations Act or the Wagner Act recognized the right of employees to join labor unions and gave workers the right to have collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is about workers (in unions) negotiating with employers to have better hours, higher wages, and better working conditions.  The NLRB or the National Labor Relations Board was created to look into workers’ complaints. More working rights came via the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. It promoted a minimum wage at 25 cents per hour and a minimum work week of 44 hours. It banned child labor. The increase of the minimum wage would occur years and decades later. Union activity grew. Also, there was a division in the labor federal of the AFL or the American Federation of Labor. The AFL had skilled workers like plumbers, carpenters, and electricians. Few workers in the major industries were part of the AFL. The AFL did little to organize them. So, John L. Lewis or the President of the United Mine Workers and other labor leaders formed the CIO or the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The CIO were diverse racially and had more a diversity of the types of skilled workers than the AFL. One strike by the CIO’s United Automobile Workers Union (UAW) dealt with a sit down strike. They occupied one of General Motors’ plants in Flint, Michigan. The strike lasted 44 days even after threats of the militia removing the workers by force. General Motors negotiated with the UAW to recognize it. The union victory led to others. By 1940, 9 million workers were in union which was twice more than 1930. Union continued to fight for better wages and working conditions.

In 1936, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won another victory in the Presidential election. He won 61 percent of to vote to 37 percent of Republican Alfred M. Landon. He carried every state except Maine and Vermont. FDR wanted to target the Supreme Court since it ended many of his programs. The Supreme Court readily ended many New Deal programs. The Supreme Court said that the President doesn’t have power to regulate interstate commerce via the Schechter Poltry v. United States decision of 1936. It ruled that one part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act was unconstitutional. So, FDR wanted to pack the Supreme Court to get his policies enacted. On February 5, 1937, FDR said that he wanted to get 6 new justices to the Supreme Court. He said that the Constitution didn’t specify the number of judges to the Supreme Court. Later, the Supreme Court started to rule in FDR without the court packing scheme. The Supreme Court on March 29, 1937 ruled 5 to 4 in favor of a minimum wage. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Wagner Act 2 weeks later. Judge Willis Van Devanter resigned from the Court. FDR wanted a pro-New Deal nominee. So, Roosevelt nominated a new Justice named Frankfurter. From 1937, the federal government increased his power, but the conservatives exploited his court packing plan to criticize him. 1935 and 1936 saw improvements in the economy. FDR cut spending, but the interest rates grew by the Federal Reserve Board. Higher interests rates means precisely that you have to pay more money for goods and services. Then, another economic downturn came with unemployment being 20 percent. Nearly all of the gains were gone. Democrats lost many elections. Republicans gained seats and very few New Deal reforms came after 1937.

The Legacy of the New Deal

The legacy of the New Deal is diverse. Millions of Americans were helped from the New Deal. Eleanor Roosevelt promoted it. She promoted the White House policies and traveled the world. FDR had the first women cabinet member who was the Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. She was involved in forming Social Security. She promoted a ban on child labor and promoted the formation of the minimum wage. In her life, she promoted working women’s rights. The CCC didn’t hire women, so the fight for sex equality continued. African Americans suffered during the Great Depression greatly. Many black people lost their jobs. Eleanor Roosevelt was clear in opposing racial discrimination. Eleanor Roosevelt opposed segregation. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt invited many African American leaders to advise him. These human beings were called the Black Cabinet. They included Robert Weaver and William Hastie. Both were Howard University graduates. They were involved in the Department of the Interior. Hastie was a judge and Weaver was the first African American cabinet member. Mary McLeod Bethune was a member of the Black Cabinet member too. She was a powerful leader in favor of racial equality. She founded a university that would be Bethune Cookman College. She was a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt too. FDR’s weakness was that he feared the southern Democrats would oppose his policy if he came out in favor of racial justice more overtly.

Lynching, discrimination, and racism were realities in America. FDR refused to promote a federal lynching law that the NAACP promoted. FDR said that every southern Democrat would block his legislation if he did it. During the 1930’s, no civil rights laws existed. Some New deal policies discriminated against black people. One example is that federal payment to farmers to produce fewer crops led white landowners to evict black sharecroppers from their farms. The WPA and other relief measure didn’t give African American equal wages. African Americans didn’t receive the full benefits back then of the Social Security and the Fair Labor Standard Act since any African Americans were domestic workers and farm laborers. The Native Americans had the Indian Civilian Conservation Corps and federal investigations to help Native Americans. The Navajo Livestock Reduction program did harm many Navajo human beings.

One legacy of the New Deal was the New Deal Coalition. It was a large unity of voters including southern whites, northern blue collar workers, poor Midwestern farmers and African Americans voting Democratic for decades to come. Before the New Deal, most African Americans were Republicans in America, because many Republicans supported anti-slavery and pro-Reconstruction legislation. Arthur W. Mitchell was the first African American Democrat in Congress after he defeated the Republican black man Oscar de Priest. A majority of seats among Democrats existed by the 1940’s. Social and ethnic divisions were a reality and more people wanted to promote more harmony in the human family. The New Deal radically expanded the role of government in the lives of the people. It saw the growth of union members. The New Deal gave much the opportunity to escape poverty while it didn’t end racial oppression. It was an experiment that made many good things a reality. Rural America experienced a massive amount of modernization as a product of New Deal actions too. It dealt with conservation with the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, Kings Canyon National Park in California, and Olympic National Park in Washington State. FDR expanded the power of the executive branch and used eloquence to promote his ideological views of liberalism. The 22nd Amendment reduced the Presidential terms to 2 in response to FDR having 3 terms. The New Deal wasn’t perfect, but its goal of making sure that no American was left out is legitimate. It promoted the great principle that the general welfare of Americans should be promoted and maintained. It outlined the truth that the federal government has the right to serve the interests of the people for the government is made by the people.

The Culture of the 1930's

The 1930’s culture in America was filled with creativity. Many people looked at movies like the Wizard of Oz. Some wanted to escape the troubles of the Great Depression. Others wanted entertainment. Literature, art, music, and movies dominated American culture. Most Americans had one radio during the 1930’s. Radical networks like NBC and CBS dominated the airwaves. The Wizard of Oz, the Walt Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs dominated the movies. Some movies like Public Enemy had James Cagney. G-men was released in 1938. Frank Capra was a major director of the film industry. He directed Mr. Smith Goes to Washington about an actor James Stewart playing a junior Senator fighting corruption in Washington. Radio dominated and music was filled with jazz and swing. Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and other promoted swing. Ellington was famous for his song “It Don’t Mean a Thing If it Ain't Go that Swing.” Ballrooms had dances. Latin music was popular with rumba and samba. Black singers like Huddie Ledbetter showed the lives of black people. Artists like Dorothea Lange captured the suffering of the Great Depression. Murals were common. Theater grew. The Federal Art Project funded artist and it ended by being slandered by J. Parnell Thomas. Native Son by Richard Wright outlined the psychological hurt that black people experienced in New Deal America. 200,000 copies of the book were sold in one month. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was a fictional tale of the Dust Bowl. Richard Wright also was an activist who opposed racial discrimination. Playwrights like Lillian Hellman of New Orleans promoted strong theatrical plays for women. Comics like Superman, Dick Tracy, etc. were common. Hollywood had many films liked Dead End in 1937, Swing Time in 1936, and the controversial movie Gone with the Wind in 1939. The New Deal era was a fundamental part of the modern American cultural society that we see today in 2018.

By Timothy